Road-course win solves mystery for Johnson

John Force: 61-year-old extends his own NHRA drag racing record with 130th Funny Car win last Sunday at Bristol, Tenn., to regain points lead.

RED FLAG

Sprint Cup drivers: So we’re at the back of the pack on a restart on a slow, narrow turn and the plan is to go 40 mph faster than the cars in front of you?

Before last Sunday at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, the highlight of Jimmie Johnson’s road-course career was an 18-second clip of film that can still be found on YouTube.

The clip predates Johnson’s rise to NASCAR’s Sprint Cup ranks and his record four straight championships.

It captures what could have been Johnson’s last race — a wild ride across a turn, a sand pit and a stretch of grass, ending with a nose-first plunge into a SAFER Barrier at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Terrifying. Then Johnson emerges from the compacted car, climbs onto the roof and waves to the crowd.

“I thought it was really going to be bad when I was headed toward the wall at full speed,” Johnson recalled later. “Then after the crash, when I’m sitting there, I thought, ‘That wasn’t bad at all.’

“When I saw it later on tape, my thought was, ‘How’d I walk away from that one?’ ”

Though Johnson was something of a novice at the time when it came to racing stock cars on road courses, he certainly wasn’t a beginner when it came to twists and turns. Johnson had spent most of his career turning right as well as left in off-road racing.

What surprised him more than anything was that he had never won a stock car race on a road course.

Until, of course, last Sunday in Sonoma when Johnson scored the first road-course win of his Sprint Cup career.

“I’m glad I can finally add that (a road-course win) to my résumé,” said the El Cajon native.

“The bottom line is, I love road-course racing. I always have. I grew up racing off-road trucks. They were on road courses with jumps. I made a name for myself in that style of racing. I love racing sports cars on road courses in events like the 24 Hours of Daytona.

“To come into the Cup Series and not have road-course success early irritated me. That’s why winning at Sonoma is so special, why it has meant so much. I just truly enjoy road-course racing, doesn’t matter if it’s our stock cars, the Grand-Am Series I run in. I’d love to run in an IndyCar someday, F1. The test that Jeff (Gordon) did was insane. Hopefully somebody watching can set that up for me.”

Johnson was laughing after the last statement. But not about his frustration of not having won on a road course.

Sunday’s win was his fourth of the season — though it ended a rare 10-race winless spell — and the 51st of his career. And he led half the 110 laps after qualifying for the outside of the front row.